I have a 1 year old sow and she might be pregnant. She had contact with my other boar for about 5 minutes.It was an accident because the boar lives in a cage separated from the sow. The divider fell down and he might have mated with her before I was able to stop him because I was in a different room during the time. The only clue I have to her pregnancy is that she gained about 80 grams in about 5 days. She weighs 962 grams which is overweight for a sow. I also don't want to go to the vet because of the expenses. My sow also has been pregnant 2 times and those 2 are still a mystery to me. So what can I do?!

First, 962 grams is not overweight for a sow. I've had several sows, and every one but one has weighed over 1300 grams without being overweight. The one who weighed less weighed around 1200 grams.

Second, how long has it been since she was with the male? Weight gain in pregnancy doesn't start for several weeks. And unless she was in heat, she won't be pregnant. Sows come in heat for a day or so every 14-16 days, and cannot get pregnant during the rest of time.

If your sow has been pregnant twice, it's no mystery. You're not keeping the male away from her. You need to put a lid on her side of the cage -- he can push up a lid on his own side, but he can't lift the lid on hers.

-Well it has been 2 weeks since the incident
-the first pregnancy was a mystery because she gave birth after a month I purchased her
-the second pregnancy was a mystery because the boar was bought after several weeks from the birth and they had separate cages
-online it says that sows should be from 700 to 900 grams and boars should be 900 to 1200 grams
-she would always weigh around 900 until now

You can read anything online, but if you read the weight article on this site, it will tell you that those weights are based on lab animals, not on pets, and that they're out of date.

There's still no mystery about the pregnancies. There are no virgin births with guinea pigs, so she was with a male both times. With the first pregnancy, she was expecting when you got her, because most guinea pig pregnancies last about 9-10 weeks. With the second, somehow she was with the male.

A pig won't have gained any significant weight in two weeks of pregnancy. The fetuses, if any, are still way too small to account for that kind of weight.

Are you weighing her at the same time of day? Preferably in the morning before breakfast? If not, there's no way to know how much of her weight is due to food/poop and how much to pig.

Weigh her once a week and do it in pounds and ounces. If the pig is pregnant, she will gain between one and three ounces during the 5th week of pregnancy. That will be a definite sign of pregnancy. The next sign will be a steady weight gain thereafter and then actually being able to feel the pups moving around when you place your hands on her abdomen in the later stages of pregnancy.

You need to find a vet that is experienced in exotic pets and have your male neutered. In the meantime you need to make absolutely sure that the male is not put in with the female again. He needs to be in a separate cage and have a lid. Any children in your household need a stern talking to and need to be supervised while they are handling the pigs. Any adults too. Every pregnancy puts your female at severe risk of any number of complications and death is one of them.

You say that you don't want any vet expenses but that is part of the responsibility of being a pet owner. You need to be looking around for one right now to get your male neutered and to have one to take your female to if it turns out she actually IS pregnant. The chance of her needing medical intervention is very, very high if she is pregnant and you want to know who to take her to when the complications occur. If she didn't have complications for the first two pregnancies, don't be fooled that she won't with this one. You were very, very lucky. The risk of complication gets higher with each pregnancy.

If there is even a chance of her being pregnant, I would begin caring for her as if she was. Read the section in medical about pregnancy and labor. She needs the addition of alfalfa (hay or pellets) or added parsley to get extra calcium so her own body is not depleted of it while growing pups.

The pee means nothing. The eating and drinking means nothing. Guinea pigs are supposed to eat all the time. And you won't feel anything at two weeks. "Quickening" which means feeling the pups move, only occurs in the later stages of pregnancy.

I am still deciding if I should neuter him because after being neutered I don't want him hurt after the surgery. Also, about how much does it cost to neuter him as long as it's not over 100 dollars I might go ahead and find a vet for him.

You will get pain medication to give him after the surgery so he won't be in pain. The good part of neutering him is that he will be able to live in the same cage as your female after he is healed and free of viable sperm (at least 3 weeks after the neuter). If you haven't done so already, check out the cages on guineapigcages.com to see how to build a proper sized cage for two pigs. Of course, you may have to wait a bit if your female is pregnant (to wait until the babies are old enough to be weaned). Female babies can remain with the mother, but male babies have to be removed at 21 days to prevent them from impregnating their mother and female siblings. At that point, male babies can be housed with the adult male. Of course, the cage has to be big enough for two or more males. So check out that cage site anyway. What happened to the babies of the first and second litter? If a male baby was left with her for longer than 21 days then that could explain the "mystery" of her second pregnancy.

We put them up for adoption and they were both girls. Only one of the girls got adopted and we are waiting for the other one to be adopted too. I am 100% sure that both of them are girls. So the second is still going to remain a mystery.

We neutered our boar and do not regret it at all. We thought he was a girl when we first got him along with our other two girls. Then when we realized he was a boy, he had already impregnated the other two. We scheduled him for neutering the next day, lol. We knew there were risks, but we also knew that neutering was the only way we could keep him, since we didn't think we could do separate cages. He was neutered when he was about 4 or 5 months old. He lives happily with our girls now in the same cage.

The procedure cost us about $150 from a cavy savvy vet who I like very much and is usually fairly reasonably priced. This included everything, and I do mean "everything." This included the anesthesia, the procedure, the antibiotics, the pain meds, etc. Our little guy did develop a complication (hematoma? I can't remember what it was called, but it was a swelling that looked like a missed testicle, but it wasn't), and the vet gave us the stuff necessary to flush the wound. After a couple of days of flushing we decided that was harder on our pig than just going back in surgically, which our vet said was an option. He went back in surgically to remove it -- without any further cost to us -- and that was that. Our pig healed nicely, and he was ready to go back in with the girls about the time the pups were born. We probably could have put him back in with them then, but we didn't, preferring to wait until we knew what sexes the babies were. At three weeks we had two male pups and put them in with their now-neutered dad. He was a great dad, teaching them things and providing adult companionship/comfort to them in the loss of their moms. We eventually re-homed the boy pups with a friend, who did not neuter them.

In comparing Twilight (our male) with his grown sons, we saw some glaring differences between a neutered male and intact ones, and as far as we are concerned, these differences are for the better:

Twilight did not grow as large as his sons have. It is three years later and he is the same size as the adult females we have. His sons are way larger.

Twilight does not have a testicle sac to drag along the ground and get bits of hay, poo and fuzzies from the fleece up in there. His sons have to have their anal sacs cleaned regularly. We've never had to clean Twilight's, though I have once or twice just to make sure (found virtually nothing).

Twilight can live with females with no fear of pregnancies. If the situation warranted it, he could also live with males. A neutered male can live with anyone.

Twilight can still "do it" when the females are in the mood, but there are no babies to worry about.

Twilight's personality has not changed at all. He still loves to be held and snuggled.

The $150 was well worth what the vet did. Especially since he went back in for no further cost when a complication arose.

Do NOT let a vet neuter your pig if the vet has not had experience neutering guinea pigs. Their plumbing is delicate and it's easy to make mistakes. Complications are somewhat common, but even so, it is very worth it. Twilight is very happy living with the girls now.

"We put them up for adoption and they were both girls. Only one of the girls got adopted and we are waiting for the other one to be adopted too. I am 100% sure that both of them are girls. So the second is still going to remain a mystery."

I'm confused. Your profile said that you had 3 guinea pigs. Are you saying you got rid of the two females but kept the male?